Pair of sweeps lift Davenport to school record 11 straight wins

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Davenport continued its winning ways on Saturday at the second day of the CU Classic hosted by Cornerstone University and it came in record fashion. DU posted a pair of 3-0 wins over Bethel College (Ind.) and Mount Mercy (Iowa) to extend its school-record winning streak to 11 matches. The streak is one greater than a 10-match one earlier this season as the Lady Panthers are now 28-5 on the year with two league matches remaining this week.

DU won all four matches to complete their second straight tournament win and over the two days only dropped one set. The Panthers defeated Bethel (who finished second in the tourney) 25-19. 25-23, 25-15 in the morning match and finished off the day with a 25-14, 25-17, 25-20 win over Mount Mercy (Iowa).

The opener against Bethel featured two of the remaining four unbeaten teams in the entire tournament entering the morning play but DU made quick work of the Pilots with a solid defensive effort led by three players who accounted for double-digit digs. Freshman Sidney Rodriguez led the way with 14 as she also posted a pair of aces which was part of seven for the team. Hanna Stone was the lone Panther above 10 kills as she sophomore finished with 11 with Molly Lameyer and Nicole Chase chipping in nine and seven respectively.

After almost six hours in between matches, DU returned to the court to face a brand new opponent for the school and they again played flawlessly defeating the Mustangs of Mount Mercy. DU raced out to identical 5-0 leads in each of the first two sets to dominate them 25-14 and 25-17. The third set was much more of a battle however as DU and MM had 12 ties and six lead changes before the Panthers rattled off the final five points, three of which came on aces from Sidney Rodriguez including match point after a timeout from the Mustangs.

Nicole Chase led the attack in the win over Mount Mercy as the junior collected 12 kills while hitting at a .476 clip while Amber Getty posted a double-double with 28 assists and 11 digs. At the conclusion of the tournament, Hannah Stone and Kelse Moon were named to the All-Tournament Team as the Panthers were the only two with two representatives as they were the lone team to finish without a loss.

Post-Match Quotes – Head coach Megan Lenhart
“I’m just really proud of what our team has been able to do these last three weeks. It has been fun to see them come together at the most important time of our season. We are keeping our eyes focused on our season goal and we hope to continue our win streak into the postseason. “

Post-Match Notes
Davenport enters the final week of the regular season in the WHAC only one match behind the three leaders…DU will travel to Lourdes on Wednesday and Cornerstone on Friday…Davenport now has win streaks this year of 10 and 11 with their previous high being six coming into the 2012 campaign